Theater review | Jersey Boys: Working its way back, show still soars

Friday

Sep 20, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 20, 2013 at 11:42 AM

Oh, what a night: The boys are back in town, singing their hearts out about the ups and downs of the American dream. Jersey Boys, returning to Columbus for an electric encore after a popular 2011 tour, seems destined to last far longer than most other "jukebox" musicals because of its deft blue-collar wedding of story and song.

Michael Grossberg, For The Columbus Dispatch

Oh, what a night: The boys are back in town, singing their hearts out about the ups and downs of the American dream.

Jersey Boys, returning to Columbus for an electric encore after a popular 2011 tour, seems destined to last far longer than most other “jukebox” musicals because of its deft blue-collar wedding of story and song.

The true story of the New Jersey quartet that struggled to further a Top 40 career as the Four Seasons is unvarnished in its gritty authenticity.

Yet the seamless staging is as polished as their greatest hits — from Sherry and Walk Like a Man to December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) and Can’t Take My Eyes off You.

The combination of style and substance, blended by director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, made for great theater at the Wednesday opening in the Ohio Theatre.

As far as American musicals about work, family, failure and the price of success go, nothing else compares.

Dividing the two-act musical into four “seasons,” each narrated from a different perspective, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice adopt an effective framing device that evokes the structure of Rashomon or Citizen Kane to give each band member his due.

Nicolas Dromard offers a compelling portrait as Tommy DeVito, who spots the potential of a young Frankie Valli and keeps the group together through the early years.

Jason Kappus projects convincing intelligence and initial youthful naivete as Bob Gaudio, the last to join the quartet but the one with the most talent to sustain it.

Brandon Andrus exerts his quiet presence, with simmering frustrations, as Nick Massi, the Ringo of the foursome.

Nick Cosgrove packs an emotional punch as lead singer Valli, who sacrifices so much to support the band. Despite a voice too nasal at times, the good singer fills the falsetto bill.

The sterling ensemble and stark design allow a cavalcade of 1960s fashions and history to mesh with the quartet as it progresses and regresses.